have in his party some men familiar with History, Geography, Political Economy, and other practical sciences, who made speeches, or dwelt on the topics of the day in a conversational way, so as to lead to debate and discussion.
French, Dutch, and German papers always lay on the table, the leaders of which supplied the company with matter for conversation. The king felt much interest in, and had even read to him aloud, all the strictures made in the papers against his government and himself; after which he used to defend himself before the company by ready wit and sensible observations.
The “Netherland Current,” a Dutch paper of large circulation at that period, once informed its readers that recently a corporal of the tall Grenadier Guard had suddenly died at Potsdam, who, after dissection, was found to have had two large stomachs, but no heart. On this being read to him by one of the company, the king at once penned a note to the editor, saying, that the fact related was perfectly true, but that the deceased was a native, a Dutchman, who had enlisted in the Prussian service. By way of change, the king allowed the company to amuse themselves with a game of chess or draughts, but would not tolerate cards. He himself sometimes played backgammon with General Flauss, a blunt Pomeranian nobleman, who, on the king proposing to him one day to render the game more interesting by the stake of a groschen, flatly refused to accede to the proposal, saying: “Your majesty gets so angry on losing a game when played for love, that I expect every time to have the dice thrown at my head; what might I not expect, should your majesty happen to lose a groschen into the bargain!”
Frederick William not only allowed such free jokes to pass, but even encouraged the company to indulge in them, even at his own expense, to render the evenings free, easy, and pleasant. At a later period, when he began to suspect treason in his nearest relations and the immediate members of his suite, such as the Prince of Anhalt and other illustrious personages, the king selected for his smoking companions at Potsdam a few of the notable citizens of the place. When at Wüsterhausen, he frequently invited the schoolmaster of the small place to the smoking entertainment. The latter had by this means acquired such a high respect among his pupils, that they considered him a far superior authority to even the king himself, whom, on his once ordering the boys on their leaving the school door to sing out, “Our schoolmaster is an ass,” they flatly refused to obey.
The most welcome guest in the College was Stanislaus, King of Poland, during his stay in Berlin in 1735, when he and the king used to smoke for a wager, each finishing from thirty to thirty-two pipes in the course of the evening.
The young princes usually entered the Tobacco College in the evening, to bid their father good night. On that occasion they were there drilled for half an hour by one of the officers present. When the Crown Prince (afterwards Frederic the Great) became of age, he was obliged to join the College, though he detested both smoking and the fool’s tricks.
The king wished to appear in that company as a private individual, and he therefore forbade all ceremonial salutations, so that nobody took the least notice of his entrance or exit. This equality of rank was carried to such a degree, that the king sought satisfaction in a common challenge for any affront offered him by any one of the company in the course of the evening. Major Fürgas, one evening, indulged in some critical remarks on the immoral conduct of some of the favourite courtiers of the king. The latter got angry, and called him a fool. “It’s only a blackguard,” retorted the other, “who would dare to apply to me such an epithet,” saying which, he rose and quitted the room. Frederick William then declared to the assembly that, as an honest soldier, he could not brook the insult, and that he was therefore resolved to fight the Major with swords or pistols. The company, however, strongly protested against the proceeding, and an arrangement was finally made that the duel should take place by proxy on the Royal part. Major Eisendel at once offered himself as the king’s champion, and the duel was fought next day with swords, when Eisendel was slightly wounded in the arm. On presenting himself to the king, the latter thanked him, and slinging round him a musketeer’s knapsack, asked him if he had any objection to march thus through the streets, if the knapsack was filled with hard thalers. Eisendel having replied in the negative, the king filled it, and giving the command, “March!” Eisendel walked home, well satisfied with the adventure.
WHAT IS COAL?
One of the most widely disputed questions of the present day, yet one on which there are perhaps more points of agreement than on almost any other, is that which has lately been so ardently contested—What is coal? It might appear, at first sight, that there could be no difficulty in answering this question, for who is there who does not suppose that he knows coal when he sees it? “Where ignorance is bliss, ’twere folly to be wise,” and but for a want of agreement among philosophers, we might have been content to believe that coal is coal.
In the year 1853, a remarkable trial took place in Edinburgh, which it might have been expected would have set at rest the question—what is coal? Not so; for although the trial lasted for six days, it opened wider than ever the portals of difference, and led to a succession of law-suits, each more involved than the last, and each bringing into the arena more numerous disputants and less prospect of agreement.
In the county of Linlithgow, and within a few miles of Edinburgh, there is a property of ancient tenure, celebrated for its coal and mineral formations, called Tarbanehill, and, in the year 1850, the owner of this property entered into a lease with certain coalmasters in the neighbourhood, in which it was conditioned that such lease was to comprehend the whole of the coal, ironstone, iron ore, limestone, and fire-clay therein found, but was not to include copper or any other minerals than those specified; and the tenants were to be allowed the first year of the lease without the
